These are small-sized, sparrow- or finch-like gregarious birds, with bills adapted to eating seeds.

[2] There are three species: Based on recent DNA-analysis, the red-billed quelea is sister to a clade that consist of both remaining species of the genus Quelea, namely Q. cardinalis and Q. erythrops.

The genus belongs to the group of true weavers (subfamily Ploceinae), and is most related to Foudia, a genus of six or seven species that occur on the islands of the western Indian Ocean.

The following tree represents current insight of the relationships between the species of Quelea, and their closest relatives.

[3] Q. quelea Q. cardinalis Q. erythrops genus Foudia Asian species of the genus Ploceus Q. quelea is a major pest to small-grain cereal crops in much of sub-Saharan Africa; the kernels of corn are too big for it.